Tuesday marked the beginning of the end for the federal government’s public health authorities, with a 5am wave of reduction-in-force (RIF) emails placing thousands of employees on notice for imminent termination.
Whole sub-agencies at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are gone, according to furious and despondent current and former employees who flooded Reddit boards with firsthand accounts. The cuts gutted or wholly shut down regional offices, the agency’s IT infrastructure, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and even an agency that mobilizes after natural disasters, like hurricanes: the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.
